Congressman Ben Cline tours School of Nursing

Congressman Ben Cline visited the JMU School of Nursing Wednesday to receive feedback from students in the online doctoral program and to tour the school’s labs and classrooms. 

The congressman, whose 6th District covers western areas of Virginia from Roanoke to Winchester, became interested in touring the school after one of its doctoral students, Dawn Byrne, worked this summer with Cline’s legislative aide researching artificial intelligence policy. 

Cline was appointed in February to the newly created bipartisan House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence. 

Doctor of Nurse Practice students participate in a week-long Health Policy Institute, which immerses them in health policy organizations in Washington, D.C. Students are paired with policymakers at the organizations, and they also spend time with legislators on Capitol Hill and attend congressional hearings. 

Byrne, who is the director of patient care services at Sentara in Woodbridge, Va., said AI is “groundbreaking technology that we absolutely have to use. There are so many benefits to it. We just have to make sure it’s rolled out effectively.”

Byrne said the benefits of using AI in health care include improving physician/patient communication, streamlining medical dictation and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of medical imaging. 

In her time working with Cline’s aide, Byrne discovered a lot of AI legislation but nothing targeting health care. “It’s about the structure and standard of setting up how we can use AI in different formats, but not specifically for health care,” Byrne said. 

Cline received feedback from three other students in the DNP program. His hour-long visit, which was coordinated by the JMU Office of Federal Relations and Communications, concluded with a tour of the nursing labs.